June 4, 2000 - A unique Beer Amnesty Program instituted by The Boston Beer Co. adds new meaning to the phrase "put a little Sam Adams in your tank."

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The company informed 450 distributors that it would buy back all out-of-code Samuel Adams for the month of March -- that is beer beyond the "freshness date" on the label. Such cost is usually absorbed by the distributor. The brewery expects to spend up to $2 million in the buyback. It says no other brewery has ever done this.

So far, more than two million bottles of Samuel Adams have been recycled -- the glass, the packaging and even the beer, which was superheated into ethanol, an additive for gasoline.